Parents' Approaches to Educating their Pre-adolescent and Adolescent Children about Sexuality

153 Pages·2009·0.95 MB·English

Crisis Pregnancy Agency Report No. 21 Crisis Pregnancy Agency Report No. 21
Parents’ Approaches to Educating their Parents’ Approaches to Educating their
Pre-adolescent and Adolescent Children about Sexuality Pre-adolescent and Adolescent Children about Sexuality
Abbey Hyde, Marie Carney, Jonathan Drennan, Abbey Hyde, Marie Carney, Jonathan Drennan,
Michelle Butler, Maria Lohan and Etaoine Howlett Michelle Butler, Maria Lohan and Etaoine Howlett
Crisis Pregnancy Agency
4th Floor
89 - 94 Capel Street
Dublin 1
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ISBN: 978-1-905199-22-8
Formulating & Implementing a National Strategy Formulating & Implementing a National Strategy
Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality PAGE 1
Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent
children about sexuality.
Dr. Abbey Hyde, Prof. Marie Carney, Dr. Jonathan Drennan, Dr. Michelle Butler, Dr.Maria
Lohan and Dr. Etaoine Howlett
University College Dublin and Queen’s University, Belfast
2009
PAGE 2 Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality
ISBN: 978-1-905199-22-8
Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality PAGE 3
Crisis Pregnancy Agency Research Award Programme
In 2007, a Research Awards Scheme was established by the Crisis Pregnancy Agency
for individuals working in academic institutions, not-for-profit research organisations
and non-governmental organisations (with a research capacity) wishing to undertake a
research project in areas related to the mandates of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. It was
envisaged that the provision of these research awards would help increase knowledge in
relation to crisis pregnancy, contribute to the Agency’s cultural change programme and
help support proficiency and new developments in the field of crisis pregnancy research.
The aims of the research awards were to:
• Ensure the Agency keeps abreast of factors related to crisis pregnancy, sexual activity
and contraceptive use, reproductive decision making and health services research.
• Build upon the range of research commissioned by the Agency and fill knowledge gaps
still existing.
• Stimulate and further strengthen research in the areas of sexual health and sexual
health policy, sexual decision making and crisis pregnancy.
• Ensure that the Agency’s existing research portfolio continues to be used and is part of
emerging developments in the field.
• Further build academic capacity and expertise in areas related to the Agency’s work.
The Crisis Pregnancy Agency is pleased that Dr Abbey Hyde of University College Dublin
received a Research Award for a project titled ‘Parent’s Approaches to Educating their
Pre-Adolescent and Adolescent Children about Sexuality’ and we welcome the report on
Dr Hyde’s work, and that of her colleagues, as the first of a series funded through this
scheme.
PAGE 4 Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality
Foreword
It gives me great pleasure to introduce this research report addressing the important
issue of parent-child communication about sex. It is the first of a series of reports
emanating from the Crisis Pregnancy Agency’s ‘Research Award Programme’ – a
programme of grant funded research projects through which the Agency seeks to draw
upon innovative approaches to exploring issues relevant to the Agency’s mandate, within
the research community.
This research aimed to explore the range of approaches parents use in communicating
with their children of different ages regarding sex; what parents understand their role
as educators to be; what cultural and contextual issues affect communication between
parents and children regarding sex; to capture differences between mothers and fathers
as sex educators; and to identify variations among groups of parents as educators based
on demographic factors.
The Crisis Pregnancy Agency recognises the role of parents as the primary educators
of their children in matters of sexual and reproductive health and is aware that many
parents feel challenged in this regard. The Agency has commissioned surveys to
document, at a population level, patterns of parent-child communication about sexuality
and relationships, levels of support for school- and home-based sex education and the
levels of ease people feel when talking to their parents about relationships and sexuality.
In addition, the Agency has commissioned in-depth qualitative research to understand,
from the perspective of young people, their educational and development needs regarding
relationships and sexuality. The authors of this report designed a research study that
would build upon these findings and look specifically at what parents think and say about
talking to their children about sex.
The findings of this report add to our understanding of this complex and important area
and its recommendations can serve parents, teachers and policy makers, as well as
the wider community. The authors' recommendations focus attention on how parents’
communication strategies and techniques vary with the age and sex of the child and how
these strategies vary over time. The authors recommend that parents be more aware
of the need for communication not only with their children but with each other, and
how parents might be supported by voluntary and statutory sector in this regard. The
recommendations also highlight the potential for increased parent-school liaison for the
Relationship and Sexuality Education component of Social Personal and Health Education
in our education system.
As mentioned above, this research was funded under a Research Awards and a
Scholarship Scheme set up by the Agency in 2007. This scheme was aimed at individuals
wishing to undertake a research project in areas related to the mandates of the Agency.
The aims of the research awards were to ensure we keep abreast of factors related to
crisis pregnancy and to stimulate and further strengthen research in the areas of sexual
health and sexual health policy, sexual decision making and crisis pregnancy. We also
aimed to further build academic capacity and expertise in areas related to the Agency’s
work.
Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality PAGE 5
This is the first report to be published under this scheme. It is my sincere hope that
by providing important information for policy-makers and for those giving leadership
in society, this report will enhance the opportunity for effective and protective
communication about sex between parents and their children in Ireland.
I would like to thank the authors of the study Dr. Abbey Hyde, Prof. Marie Carney,
Dr. Jonathan Drennan, Dr. Michelle Butler, and Dr. Etaoine Howlett of University College
Dublin and Dr. Maria Lohan of Queens University Belfast, for all their hard work. I would
particularly like to thank the 43 participating parents in this research, without whose
cooperation this project would not have been possible.
Lastly I would like to thank the Research and Policy Sub-committee of the Board of the
Crisis Pregnancy Agency and the Agency’s research staff for their input into this report.
Caroline Spillane
Director
Crisis Pregnancy Agency
PAGE 6 Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality
About the Authors
Dr. Abbey Hyde has a background in nursing and sociology and is a senior lecturer at the
School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems at University College Dublin. She has
published widely in journals of international standing on the topic of adolescent sexuality
and on gender-related health issues.
Prof. Marie Carney is an Associate Professor of Nursing at the Royal College of Surgeons
in Ireland since April 2008. Prior to this she was a senior lecturer in the School of Nursing,
Midwifery and Health Systems, University College Dublin and from 2001 to 2007 she was
Head of School there.
Dr. Jonathan Drennan has a background in nursing and education and is a lecturer at the
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems. He has extensive experience of large-
scale research projects, having directed a number of funded studies. He has published
widely in international literature within the disciplines of nursing and education.
Dr. Michelle Butler is Head of School and Dean of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems
at University College Dublin. She has 16 years’ experience in the design and conduct
of research, including studies of midwifery education, pregnancy outcomes, and the
identification of research priorities for midwifery.
Dr. Maria Lohan is a Lecturer in Health Sciences in the School of Nursing and Midwifery
Studies, Queens University Belfast. She specialises in research on gender and health with
specific reference to men’s engagement with sexual and reproductive health services.
Dr. Etaoine Howlett is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Equality Studies Centre,
University College Dublin. She recently completed a PhD exploring the experiences
of hearing parents of deaf children in Ireland. Previously, she co-authored (with Dr.
Abbey Hyde) the first major qualitative study on the sexuality of Irish teenagers, entitled
Understanding Teenage Sexuality in Ireland (CPA, 2004).
Acknowledgements
The authors of this report would sincerely like to thank all the school principals, school
parents’ committee chairpersons, a school liaison officer and a community worker who
facilitated the research team during the recruitment process for this study. In order to
protect the identity of participants, these individuals will remain anonymous; however,
their help with and enthusiasm for the study was greatly appreciated. The study would not,
of course, have been possible without the participation of parents, who gave their time
voluntarily, and we are particularly grateful to them for their contributions and for taking
the time to be interviewed. We would also like to thank Debbie Emerson for transcribing
the audio recordings, and finally to thank the Crisis Pregnancy Agency for providing
constructive feedback and helpful comments on an earlier draft of this report.
The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views or policies of the sponsors.
Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality PAGE 7
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary 10

1.0 Introduction 23
1.1 Aims 23
1.2 Objectives 23
1.3 Structure of the document 24

2.0 Existing research and scholarship on parental sexuality education 25
2.1 The degree of communication on sexuality that occurs between
parents and young people 25
2.1.1 Adolescent desire for parental communication 27
2.2 Existing research on the effectiveness of parental sexuality education
on sexual outcomes for adolescents 27
2.3 Cultural openness about sexuality: the Dutch situation 38
2.4 Gender issues relating to parental sexuality education 41
2.5 Issues pertaining to the process of parental sexuality education 43
2.5.1 Willingness, ease and openness in communicating 44
2.5.2 Triggers for increased communication 45
2.5.3 Parental concerns about protecting children 46
2.5.4 Moral values and ideologies cross-cutting parental sexuality
education 47
2.6 Parents interfacing with school-based sexuality education 48
2.7 Gaps in existing knowledge 50

3.0 Research design 51
3.1 Overview of the research design 51
3.2 Implementation of the sampling strategy 52
3.3 Data collection 54
3.4 The process of analysis 55
3.5 Ethical considerations 55

4.0 Patterns of parental approaches to relationships and sexuality education
with children 56
4.1 Introduction 56
4.2 Child-initiated sexuality education 56
4.3 The use of text-based material 58
4.4 The talk 59
4.5 Intermittent and opportunistic communication 60
4.6 The wake-up call 61
Section 4: Key points 63
PAGE 8 Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality
5.0 Social processes, practices and attitudes mediating parental sexuality
education 65
5.1 Introduction 65
5.2 Reading and knowing the child’s readiness 65
5.3 The quest for a culture of openness 67
5.4 The exercise of control in information management in parent/child
discussions about sexuality 69
5.4.1 Claims to already have a full knowledge of sexual issues 69
5.4.2 Adolescents demonstrating an unwillingness to discuss the
topic 70
5.4.3 The regulating impact of the young person’s sensibilities 72
5.5 Parents’ constructions of their teenager’s character, peer group and
sexual behaviour 73
5.5.1 Parents’ perceptions of their own adolescent’s sexual behaviour 76
5.5.2 The covert life of adolescents 78
5.6 School-based sexuality education 78
5.6.1 Participants’ perspectives on their role in sexuality education
relative to the role of the school 79
5.6.2 The extent to which parents were aware of and engaged with
school-based sexuality teaching and learning 81
5.7 Parental communications about sexual safety 84
Section 5: Key points 85

6.0 The content and substance of parental sexuality education 88
6.1 Introduction 88
6.2 The moral messages of parents 88
6.2.1 Parents’ perspectives on sexual liberty and restraint 88
6.2.2 Moral perspectives, generational issues, and parental age 90
6.2.3 Covert morality messages 91
6.2.4 Tacit moral messages: regulating sleeping arrangements in the
home 92
6.2.5 Parents presenting a liberal perspective 93
6.3 Parental messages about sex and the practice of safer sex 93
6.3.1 Covert safer sex messages: innuendos and intimations 95
6.3.2 Parental education about contraception and safer sex:
challenges, barriers and assumptions 97
6.3.3 Evading direct references to the body and bodily functions 99
6.3.4 Acknowledging gaps in young people’s knowledge 100
6.4 Messages about the negative consequences of sexual activity:
pregnancy and STIs 101
6.5 Communication about homosexuality and lesbianism 104
Section 6: Key points 107

7.0 Parental sexuality education and gendering 108
7.1 Introduction 108
7.2 Men and emotions 108
7.3 Gendering in parental approaches to sexuality education 109
Parents’ approaches to educating their pre-adolescent and adolescent children about sexuality PAGE 9
7.3.1 Do mothers and fathers have different roles in sexuality
education? 109
7.3.2 Attitudes and expectations about the sexual demeanour and
behaviour of young men and women 112
Section 7: Key points 119

8.0 Discussion of findings 120
9.0 Overall conclusion 129
10.0 Recommendations 133
References 135

Appendices 143
Appendix 1: Information sheet 143
Appendix 2: Contact sheet 145
Appendix 3: Characteristics of the sample 146
Appendix 4: Topic guide 147
Appendix 5: Post-interview questionnaire 149
Appendix 6: Consent form 150